School of Music to perform annual Scholarship concert

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April 5, 2014

PLAINVIEW – The Wayland Baptist University School of Music will present its annual
Scholarship Concert on Saturday, April 12 at 7:30 p.m. in Harral Memorial Auditorium.
Admission is $10 for adults and $5 for students with proceeds benefitting School of
Music scholarships.

The concert will feature Wayland’s Symphonic Winds Ensemble as well as the Jazz Ensemble
and Percussion Ensemble. Director of Bands Timothy S. Kelley will direct the full
band portion of the concert with Dr. Joe Vandiver directing the jazz ensemble and
Dr. Anthony King directing the percussion group.

Saturday’s event will also feature several special presentations as the Friends of
Music organization will present a memorial shadow box for Wanda Withers, one of the
first donors to the All-Steinway Initiative. The Friends of Music will also recognize
the scholarship award winners.

Dr. Ann Stutes, Dean of the School of Music, will present the Culpepper Award. Named
for Audine Culpepper, the award was created to recognize music students who exhibit
servant leadership and civility.

Kelley said the concert will be broken into three sets. The first set will be a traditional
band concert. The second set will feature the Wayland Jazz Ensemble and the Wayland
Percussion Ensemble, with the Symphonic Winds closing out the evening. The final set
will feature more contemporary music.

“The college band directors’ national association decided to start combining a lot
of traditional, standard band repertoire with a more popular style of music,” Kelley
said.

According to Kelley, the change in style is an attempt to maintain audience interest.
He said all too often, bands perform the same music which makes it difficult to build
a new audience.

“The way to develop and build a new audience is to reach out to a different area of
society,” Kelley said. “The last portion of the program will feature a couple of pieces
along those lines.”

The band will perform a “high-speed, high-impact” piece entitled “Ride” as well as
“The Seal Lullaby,” a piece which was performed vocally by the Wayland choir last
year. Another new piece entitled “Undertow” features constantly changing meters, making
it difficult to perform. The band will also play “Hymn to the Fallen” from the movie
Saving Private Ryan.

The traditional portion of the concert will feature several pieces of Americana, as
well as a concert band arrangement of Dr. Gary Belshaw’s “No Small Dreams” originally
composed for piano as part of Wayland’s Centennial Celebration in 2008.